Monday, 17 September 2012

Two Saturdays ago in
Lagos, South Africa’s Sifiso Mzobe walked away with the coveted US$20,000 of
the Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa. A journalist, Mzobe is the
second South African to have won the prize after Dr. Kopano Matlwa (Coconut) jointly won with Nigeria’s Dr. Wale Okediran (Tenants
of the House) two years ago. In
this online interview with ANOTE AJELUOROU, the newly crowned literary
laureate, Mzobe, expresses his delight at winning the prize and being able to
shake hands with the iconic Prof. Wole Soyinka, the man for whom the
pan-African prize is named. Excerpts:

What special feelings
does winning the Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa engender in you?

I am
deeply honoured, humbled and grateful.It gave me a deeper appreciation for the written word as to how far and
wide it can travel.

What
has changed in your life and work since winning the prize?

Getting
known in the continent has been the major change. I mean I am answering
questions in a Nigerian publication, for example.

What is changing in your
life since? Do you have new friends, relations, etc?

Yes, I
have made new friends. Quite a lot of friends in the few days I was in Lagos.

What is likely to change in
your life and work?

I hope
my work can reach a wider audience.I’d like to travel and see more countries in our beautiful continent.

The success of your
story typifies the ascendancy African writing has witnessed in recent years.
How would you describe what is happening to African fiction?

There
has been a welcomed boom in African literature. This is to be expected as a
younger generation grew up reading masters like Soyinka, Achebe and Mda.They
carved the path, made us realise it is alright to have stories to tell. Our
cities are growing and rapidly changing making for favourable writing
conditions.

What is the nature of
fiction publishing in South Africa? How are writers treated in terms of
royalties, promotion, etc? Was it hard finding a publisher for your book?

Fiction does
not outsell non-fiction but it is surviving. It is out there; our writers are
breaking into the international scene, and naturally more will follow. With
democracy barriers are broken hence these stories, country finding our feet on
the social mingling aspect. The promotion aspect could be better, of course. It
was hard finding a publisher, it took a while but I just persevered and kept
rewriting.

How would you describe the
writing environment in you country?

Our book
market is small so it is hard. It has to be supplemented. I hope this can
change because writing is time consuming yet time is the chief maker of good
prose. If writers were given the time to just write, we’d have a clearer
reflection of ourselves.

What reception did you get
back home in South Africa?

The win has
been well received. The media supports literature so interviews have come in
thick and fast. And, all the congratulations from friends, family, the works.

What was your
impression of the award event in Lagos?

It was a
lovely event. Top class in all regards. I got to shake Wole Soyinka’s hand, and
shared a joke with the great man. It was a wonderful evening!

How would you describe the
work of the organisers of the prize, The Lumina Foundation in promoting
literature on the continent?

The Lumina
Foundation is a beacon in the continent. They provide a platform for the
exchange of culture, among many things. We need more of their ilk.

What specific issue (s)
does Young Blood address? What
relevance to modern African societies?

Young
Blood addresses crime from inside a car
theft syndicate. The tale of a lost black male, showing how and why he gets
lost. Navigating a world bent on adding barriers. It a story that happens
everywhere in the cities of Africa.

What's next, then, for you
as a writer? Any work coming soon?

I’m working
on the second book. It’s a detective story of the rare kind begging to be
finished.

A week ago at The Civic Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos, the
Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa, a Pan-African award for writers on
the continent, went to South African journalist, Sifiso Mzobe for his first
novel, Young Blood. The large Banquet
Hall was filled to capacity, with such distinguished audience as two sitting
governors, Babatunde Fashola and Ibikunle Amosun of Lagos and Ogun States
respectively, a former governor, Donald Duke of Cross Rivers State and the
former President of Ghana, John Kufour. The award night also played host to
eminent personalities in the Lagos business and financial industries.

For The Lumina
Foundation, organisers of the prize, managed by award-winning author, painter
and philanthropist, Dr. Ogochukwu Promise, and chairman of her board, Mrs.
Francesca Emanuel, nothing could be more fulfilling than gathering Lagos
business and financial communities under one roof to talk and celebrate art and
literature. Indeed, it is the way it should be; it is the way it is in other
climes where the humanizing values of art and culture are appreciated. It is a
culture that needs to grow in this clime as well as there are abundant human
resources in working in the art and culture sector, with literature blazing a
significant trail.

The coming
on board of telecommunication giant Globacom Nigeria Ltd as major sponsor
enjoyed praise from dignitaries, even from Africa’s first Nobel Laureate, Prof.
Wole Soyinka. But it was just Globacom, other corporate bodies had support The
Lumina Foundation since its started the prize over sic years ago. According to
Dr. Promise, “The Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa has been
sponsored by some of Africa’s best brands. Not only does this give us a solid
platform to advance the cause of African literature, but also offers us a
brilliant showcase of African corporate success and social engagement.

“Among such
brands is Globacom, led by its chairman, Mr. Michael Adenuga, Jr. (CON). In
endorsing this prize, Mr. Adenuga expressed the hope that it would be the
inspiration for many more recognised and acknowledged Africans in the tradition
of Wole Soyinka, a man he much admires.In partnering with us, Globacom has matched our enthusiasm with uncommon
zeal, bringing with them their business expertise and their commitment to
excellence, celebrating Africa in its diversity and promoting the nurturing of
talent and artistic grace.

“I have
personally enjoyed working with the Globacom team, particularly for their
indomitable spirit and dedication to the task at hand. For recognizing the
importance of this project in building great minds, for readily agreeing to be
a part of it as our major sponsor, for giving us immense support both
financially and otherwise, we thank Globacom most sincerely”.

But there
are other corporate organisations that have played supportive roles since the
Wole SoyinkaPrize for Literature in Africa came into being. Dr. Promise took
time to acknowledge them, as should fittingly be, when she said, “We are
grateful also to Macmillan Nigerian Publishers. When we began this prize in
2006, when all we had was ‘The Dream’, they trusted our ability to attain our
expressed goals. They donated the prize trophy to cater for six editions of
this prize.

“South
African Petroleum Limited (SAPETRO) has proved to be a safe harbor in often
stormy weather: They graciously donated the prize money for five editions of
the award, an endowment which has immensely eased our anxieties in this regard.
But for their encouragement and inspiration as we forge ahead with the business
of providing constructive support for flourishing African creativity.

“We thank
also Zenith Bank Plc. Our gratitude is also deeply expressed to Ecobank Plc and
Ecobank Foundation, both of whom have been faithful companions from the first
day of this journey. They helped us start our Mobile Library scheme by donating
the bus that houses the library. They have also sponsored Phone-In TV reading
programmes for the Wole Soyinka Reading Clubs, thus sustaining an enhancement
of a reading culture”.

Also,
chairman of The Lumina Foundation Board of Trustees, Mrs. Emanuel played up the
political card that is often missing in art and culture event with the usual
absence of political personages. At this event, two serving governors were in
attendance including an African former head of state, Kufour of Ghana. Emauel
said, “I want to express our gratitude to former President John Agyekum Kufour
of Ghana, who kindly agreed to chair this occasion; I say to you ‘AKWAABA!’

“We are honored also to have as host the Executive
Governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola, a governor whose
stewardship is a source of great pride to Lagosians: ‘Eko O Ni Baje
O!’.We are also pleased to receive as our guest Of honor Senator Ibikunle
Amosun, the Governor of Ogun State, the state of origin of our Nobel Laureate
Professor Wole Soyinka. I must express our sincere gratitude to them all for
finding the time in their undoubtedly busy schedules to participate in our
event.I venture to say that their
literary passion may have played a deciding factor in this regard”.

Indeed, it
is time the literary passion of their Excellencies became inflamed to such an
extent that they begin to do what is right to the arts through generous support
by way of endowments and sponsorship to stimulate the self-supporting
self-starting culture sector of the economy!

With Dr.
Promise already angling to have a writers’ residency programme and café to
cater for the interest of writers, it is hoped that these governors and others
across Nigeria would respond to requests for assistance so she could realise
her dream, perhaps the second for the upliftment Nigeria and Africa’s creative
minds deserve.

Fashola also
responded engagingly on the night when he said, “It delights us to no end to
host this kind of event in Lagos. Literature and the arts truly define who we
are. Our heritage in Tumbuktu is being threatened. This is not good. This state
treasures arts and literature. We are the treasure trove of literature”.

Amosun was
no less enthusiastic in the evening’s fever, when he noted, “Wole Soyinka has
shown the awesome power of the pen; he has put Nigeria on the world map. There
is power in the pen, in literature and the arts. We need to promote literature
for the reawakening of reading culture in Nigeria”.

ON the performance side for the evening, the masked
musician, Lagbaja serenaded the audience with his old tunes that easily
distinguished him from the crowd. Starting from among the audience, he blew on
his saxophone till he went up stage and thrilled. But this was not before
Footprints of David, the children’s arm of Segun Adefila-led Crown Troupe of
Africa had performed. The all-female choral group, Nerfettiti first sang the
National Anthem before Footprints of David and then Crown Troupe did a skit on
reading and politics without direction and its effect on the general populace
with the result that education usually misses direction.

When Mzobe was
eventually declared winner of the prize, Footprints of David again stepped
forward with Zulu costume to do a Zulu Victoria dance in honour of the South
African winner. Lagbaja agan ended the evening with his music and those with a
heart for it danced, including the organiser, Dr. Promise, her chairman,
Emanuel and other dignitaries, to bring the Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature
in Africa 2012 to an end.

Former
President of Ghana, John Kufour was in Lagos last week to chair the Wole
Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa, where he spoke glowingly about the
excellent character of Africa’s first black Nobel Laureate in Literature and
the need to replicate such men of ideas, character and culture on the continent
as a way of repositioning Africa from the margins of history to mainstream
globalisation. He also had excellent words for The Lumina Foundation for
instituting the prize named after Soyinka to throw up Africa’s best writers and
reward them for the excellence of their writing. ANOTE AJELUOROU recaps the
interview. Excerpts:

YOU
spoke glowingly about The Lumina Foundation and what it is doing to promote
writing and writers. And, it seems it is something you’d like to see replicated
all over the continent, isn’t it?

I
meant that the subject matter, Wole Soyinka, that Africa should have quite a
few of them dotting all over the place for culture, literacy and all that.

Now,
in spite of ICT penetration in the last few years, African art and culture has
been its strongest points. Yet it is the least promoted by African leaders. Why
is this so?

But the rest of the world said we didn’t have culture!

But
is Africa promoting its culture enough to engage the interest of the rest of
the world?

I believe now the world is looking,
especially when we have the likes of Wole Soyinka. If the rest of the world is
not interested, they wouldn’t have given him the Nobel Laureate for Literature.
This means the rest of the world is looking. Then Nollywood is working, isn’t it? Now,
the whole continent is watching Nollywood films; so, too, is the rest of the world –
Europe, America. So, it’s good.

When
you were president, how much of culture would you say you promoted in your
country, Ghana?

Uhm,
quite a lot! I would say culture and education should come hand in hand; I
believe the people are defined by their culture. As often observed, we Africans
are known for our culture right from time. It’s just that we didn’t read and we
didn’t write it down. So, it was like handed down folklore and a lot of it
became like legend. So, with the introduction of Western education, somehow,
they were made to look down on our own stories. Now, this is why Soyinka again
comes in; when we began having our own writers, they captured some of the
cultures in their writings. So now others know that Africa, too, is part of the
international, global culture.

So, I, as president, appreciated culture. Some of our ministries covered
culture. We have something called FESTAC in Ghana, where various tribes display
our traditional cultures and festivals.

Ghana
has some of Africa’s best writers like Koffi Awoonor, Ayi Kwei Amah, Ama Ata
Aidoo, etc. Which of them would you say is your favourite?

I respect all of them (laughs). I respect all of them!

It’s
often said that leaders are readers…

Perhaps,
you’re talking about political leaders…

But
how much do the leaders read when most of them uphold the culture of impunity,
corruption and sundry atrocities against their own people?

That
is no culture. Impunity is no culture. Impunity is contempt, disrespect.
Corruption is taking what is not yours. So, those are no culture. Impunity
means bullying.

If
you were to advise leaders on how to promote African culture, what would you be
telling them?

That
they should encourage their educational institutions to research into our
traditional practices. I’m sure universities here in Nigeria are focusing on
culture. In Ghana, too, we have the same thing. I believe our governments
should support and sponsor research work into culture.

Between
African leaders and writers/culture workers, there is always a conflict of
interest. How can a better working relationship be forged between the two to
work towards the same goal of developing the continent?

Dictators
tend to suspect people who do not tow their lines. Anybody who is open-minded
and observes or criticises objectively is suspect to a dictator who wants to
monopolise power. The dictator abhors anything that would challenge his hold on
power. Wole Soyinka criticised what was going on because what was going on
didn’t sit well with him. They couldn’t accommodate him and they dragged him
into prison. Later on when there was a tyrant here, who was killing people and
imprisoning people, he spoke out and they wanted to kill him. And if he didn’t
run into exile, anything could have happened to him.

You
mentioned in your speech the plundering of Africa by colonisers. How they took
away valuable artefacts such as the Ashante Golden Stool in Ghana and Idia mask
in Nigeria and others. What would you advise African governments to do to
repatriate these objects?

Those
artefacts, as you call them, that could be traced, we should lay claim to them.
And they shouldn’t be where they shouldn’t be, but here on the continent.
Reparation is a big and complex issue, and I wouldn’t want Africa to beat about
the bush. We should focus on our development now where we are, where we found
ourselves. Fortunately, nature has endowed us with abundant natural resources;
we should harness them for our development. Let us focus on educating our
people. I believe that is where real empowerment comes from, education through
which we can develop our people. That is the only way we can take command of
our natural resources to make our lives better and make our way forward into
the mainstream of globalisation, which is on; we have to keep up with it.

If we
want to fight battles, we may be left on the margins of globalisation. We don’t
want that; we want to go into the centre and we can’t go into the centre
without empowering the people that comes with education. We have to entice our
entrepreneurs to use best practices; the market forces are so powerful.

You
also lamented Soyinka’s use of the English language and not his native Yoruba…

No!
I wasn’t lamenting. I was rather praising him for being smart not to have used
Yoruba. If he had written in Yoruba the other people in the world wouldn’t have
read him because Yoruba is not an international language. But this man uses
other people’s language and proves to be a super master in it. At the end, they
acknowledged him; they are forced to give him the topmost literary award. So, I
was rather saying that a Yoruba man who hadn’t written in Yoruba got
acknowledged, but has used other people’s language to let see that, even though
he isn’t a native of that language, he has command of that language, and
language is a very powerful tool. In Ghana, we have a proverb that says, ‘The
dumb dreams, but how does he communicate? Suppose he can communicate it, he
could change society with the strength of his dreams!’

So, Soyinka has used other people’s language to communicate ideas, people who
came and said we didn’t have culture, we didn’t have religion. That was what I
was trying to say; not that he hadn’t written in Yoruba. Perhaps, he has
written in Yoruba, I don’t know. But he wrote in other people’s language,
Shakespeare’s language and caught the attention of the whole world. Suppose he
wrote only in Yoruba, I don’t know the kind of attention he would have got.

What
kind of books did you read when you were in office, and now that you’re out,
what do you read?

I’m still a politician, and I read!

You’re
aware that the cultural heritage materials in Timbuktu, Mali are being
destroyed by fundamentalists. How do you react to such news?

Such
a thing shouldn’t be happening in Africa! It is a continent that is in the
process of recovering itself. Africa is so big, with diverse parts; the whole
of it has been so abused and exploited by outsiders. Thankfully over the past
few years, all parts of the continent are coming together; now, we have more
things uniting us together and we’re forging unity. So, we’ve come together as
African Union. Now, we have people behaving like this, making it seem as if we
shouldn’t appreciate our past. Whether it is religion or tribe or whatever, we
don’t destroy things that have been there for centuries. Those give materials
evidence that, even centuries back, how our forebears, our ancestors used to
think, as the monuments give evidence to. Now, they go and destroy them. For
what? It’s very sad to carry on like that.

Isn’t this why other people say we do not have culture? Now, they may seem
justified with such acts. Those people doing those things, I don’t think they
are thinking right.

Continent-wide biggest
literary award, the Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa had its 2012
winner decorated last Saturday in a glittering ceremony at The Civic Centre,
Victoria Island, Lagos. The event had players from Lagos business and financial
industries in attendance including two executive governors.

Former Ghanaian President Mr. John Kufour, Prof. Wole
Soyinka, Governors Babatunde Fashola and Ibikunle Amosun of Lagos and Ogun
States and former governor of Cross River State, Mr. Donald Duke witnessed the
crowning of Africa’s literary laureate.

The Dr. Ogochukwu Promise-led Lumina Foundation, organisers
of the prize, did not leave anything to spare to make the fourth edition of the
prize sponsored by telecommunication company, Globacom Nigeria Ltd a success.

A South African journalist Sifiso Mzobe won the US$20,000
prize with his first novel Young Blood. His work beat Nigeria’s Prof. Akachi Ezeigbo’s Roses and Bullets and fellow South Africa’s Bridget Pitt’s Unseen
Leopard. With his winning Mzobe has
joined four other laureates of the prize designed to generate excellence in
book-writing and literature on the African continent.

And Mzobe declared after receiving the prize, “I know it’s a
difficult task in a continent with so many voices. I thank the Lumina
Foundation for encouraging literature in Africa. We have so many stories in
Africa waiting to be told. I thank Soyinka for his courageous life and example
of bravery and tenacity. He inspires people like me to go into writing. In
Africa, we will continue making changes!”

Of the five judges, only two – Nigeria’s Prof. Olu Obafemi
and South Africa’s Liesl Louw – were present to announce the winner. Three
others – North Africa’s Eid Shabbir, West Africa’s Dr. Awo Asiedu and Jonathan
Moshal – did not make it.

CHAIRMAN, Board of Trustees
of The Lumina Foundation, Mrs. Francesca Emanuel, welcomed dignitaries and
restated reasons for instituting the prize to include “appreciating and
promoting great African authors and according them the recognition they deserve
among renowned authors worldwide and to celebrate awesome create works in all
their cerebral grace, liberating qualities, and honour and recognition they
bring to a myriad of people of diverse cultures and languages”.

She also expressed the hope that “The Wole Soyinka Prize for
literature in Africa will continue to stimulate intellectual discourse on
literature in all our exchange programmes. We are thankful that the prize is
steadily growing in prominence: It is notable also that our judges are
distinguished literary intellectuals from five different Anglophone and
Francophone African countries.

“Through The Lumina Foundation, the prize provides administrative
support for a wide range of knowledge-based and charity-driven projects such as
the Mobile Library Scheme that extends the gift of books to the less
privileged, specifically children in various localities.At the moment, we operate in targeted
Lagos districts such as Ijora, Bariga, Ojuelegba, Ajegunle, Ketu, Okoko-maiko
and Mushin. Our scheme will over time be extended to other states and other
countries as the resources within our disposal permit. Till date, we have
formed 63 Wole Soyinka Reading Clubs in 63 schools across Nigeria. We have
established 84 Libraries in homes, offices and schools, through which we
encourage people to read at least a book a week.

“We have commenced Monthly Readings of works by excellent
writers, each event facilitated by our friends in the media”.

On his part, Soyinka commended The Lumina Foundation for
instituting the prize. He said he was not part of the organisation process or
its board but said it had his full support. “I give 100 per cent support to the
work of this organisation in promoting literature and in restoring the reading
of books, especially when books are being threatened; libraries in Timbuktu are
also being threatened by the primitivists in Mali; it’s a time to be more
aggressive in promoting books.

“Also, thugs have taken to bombing telecommunications masts
in Nigeria; I sympathise with the telecommunication companies., especially the
monopoly of NITEL, which has been broken. This is to tell government that the
battle line has been drawn. This nation is at war!”

Soyinka also commended Globacom Nigeria Ltd for support the
prize instituted in his name.

Globacom chairman, Dr. Mike Adenuga Jr., who was represented
by the company's National Sales Coordinator, Mr. David Maaji, commended the
organisers of the Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa for keeping the
flag flying very high since the prize was established in 2005 as a biennial
award for the best literary work produced by an African, adding that it has,
within its short life span, carved a niche for itself in the literary circle by
recognising and encouraging professionalism and excellence. He stated that
"the association between Globacom and the Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole
Soyinka was premised on the similarity of our aspirations and characteristics
in terms of developing a strong, virile African society".

He further said the company’s involvement in the Wole
Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa was a further demonstration of
Globacom’s irrevocable commitment to giving value to our subscribers as well as
contributing to the intellectual development of the communities where we have
our footprints”.

Also, chairman of the literary prize award night and former
Ghanaian President, Mr. Kufour, praised Africa’s first Nobel Laureate as an
excellent fellow who set the pace for other giant strides the continent has
made in the last few decades to reposition it in a better footing in the comity
of nations.

In a paper titled ‘The Pursuit of Excellence: The Wole
Soyinka Example’, Kufour traced the historical woes Africa had suffered in the
hands of outsiders and its steady steps towards self-discovery and recovery.
“Africa, which until this dramatic achievement (Soyinka’s winning the Nobel
Laureate in 1986) had been on the margins of the literary world, suddenly
attained centre-stage. Commentators were stopped in their tracks and they began
to look at Africa again as a possible reservoir of great possibilities”.

Kufour said Soyinka’s sterling achievement was to initiate a
sort of renaissance that was to happen to Africa in the coming years following
his being crowned Africa’s literary king. According to him, “Africa, in all its
diverse spheres of developments, is yearning for champions like Soyinka… He
transcends the entire areas of society right down to the grassroots. This is
what makes him the leader, influencer and examplar of society not exclusive to
Africa. He is, indeed, inter-generational and a global citizen.

“And Africa, the rising giant, needs such achievers to
hasten its awakening and full maturation within the global society”.

The Ghanaian former President also commended The Lumina
Foundation for organising a continent-wide literary prize to reward the best
writers. He enjoined the prize winner to be proud for being adjudged the best
and acknowledged for following in the footsteps of Africa’s literary colossus –
Wole Soyinka!

Fashola and Amosun also commended The Lumina Foundation for
the prize initiative and pledged their support.

CEO of The Lumina Foundation Dr. Promise expressed heartfelt
gratitude to guests, sponsors, and judges for making the prize a reality.

ON the performance side, the
masked musician, Lagbaja serenaded with his old tunes that easily distinguished
him from the crowd. Starting from among the audience, he blew on his saxophone
till he went up stage and thrilled. But his was not before Footprints of David,
the children’s arm of Segun Adefila-led Crown Troupe of Africa had performed.
The all-female choral group, Nerfettiti first sang the National Anthem before
Footprints of David and them Crown Troupe did a skit on reading, politics
without direction and its effect on the general populace and education.

Tuesday, 4 September 2012

A literary shortlist always
creates excitement, shock, surprise and even hisses. The US$100,000 worth The Nigerian
Prize for Literature just released elicits no less emotions, at least for those
familiar with some or all of the works.

On the shortlist are Ngozi Achebe Onaedo with The
Blacksmith’s Daughter, Ifeanyi
Ajaegbo with Sarah House, Jude
Dibia with Blackbird, Vincent
Egbuson with Zhero, Adaobi Tricia
Nwaubani with I Do Not Come to You by Chance. Others are Onuorah Nzekwu with Troubled Dust, Olusola Olugbesan with Only Canvass, Lola Shoneyin with The Secret Lives of Baba
Segi’s Wives, E.E. Sule with Sterile
Sky and Chika Unigwe with On Black
Sister’s Street.

Some of the works that elicits excitement include Adaobi
Nwaubani’s I Do Not Come to You by Chance, an extremely hilarious novel about the 419 scam of the late 1990 and
early 2000. Nwaubani’s wit and ability to thresh up the minds of these scammers
stand her work out. Not least darkly hilarious is Lola Shoneyin’s The Secret
Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives that
explores a festering harem racked by the inability of the husband to father a
child because of infertility.

On the other hand, Onuorah Nzekwu’s Troubled Dust and Chika Unigwe’s On Black Sister’s Street are works that stand out in their own terms. Nzekwu’s
Troubled Dust was published some
42 odd years after it was written; it stirs up raw emotions about the Nigerian
Civil War fought in the late 60s and serves as a reminder that the warpath
should never be an option because of the dire consequences. The co-author of Eze
Goes to School has a work that can
strongly contend for the prize just like any other.

Unigwe’s On Black Sister’s Street opens the raw wound of female trafficking for
prostitution purposes still rampant in some part of the country as a means of
escaping the economic hardship in Nigeria. The Belgium-based writer’s work
explores the dark world of the criminal ring that profits from this obnoxious
trade in feminine flesh and the lives of the victims.

Apart from Dibia’s Blackbird, which deals with two families and the intertwining
relationships, the other works also present their own peculiar surprises and
expectations. As they say, the die is cast, and let the judging begin!

Members of the panel of judges for this year’s prize include
Prof. J.O.J. Agbaja, Prof. Angela Miri, prof. Sophia Ogwude, and Dr. Oyeniyi
Okunoye, with Prof. Francis Abiola Irele, Provost of the Colleges of Humanities
at Kwara State University and Fellow of the Dubois Institute, Harvard
University, jury panel chairman. He said it took hours of intensive scrutiny by
the panel to produce the shortlist. A closer scrutiny will produce the
shortlist of three before the final award in October.

TOMORROW also, the Wole
Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa will announce its winner in a grand
ceremony at The Civic Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos. Former President if
Ghana, Mr. John Kuffour will deliver a keynote address while Governors
Babatunde Fashola and Ibikunle Amosun of Lagos and Ogun States respectively
will be in attendance.

The Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa is worth
US$20,000, making it the second biggest literary prize on the continent to
reward writer’s creativity and diligence in projecting Africa’s culture and
humanity.

These two prizes are a boost for the continent’s writers
who, otherwise, profit very little from their writings in an environment with
little or no infrastructure for effective book distribution or royalties from
publishers. Indeed, since the two prizes are domiciled in Nigeria, the
country’s writers now have an honourable expectation from their works and can
go on crafting stories that can truly stir the human heart.

Now in its second edition,
the Victor Okhai-led In-Short International Film Festival 2012 has announced
entries for participants wishing to compete and showcase their short films from
across the globe. While the entry closes late September, the festival will be
held in Lagos from October 11-13 at Silverbird Galleria, Nigeria Film
Corporation office, Lagos and The City Mall, Onikan, Lagos.

There will also be workshops and seminars to teach film
techniques to interested participants and the public.

Okhai, who is also the president of International Institute
of Film and Broadcast Academy, Lagos, stated recently that the festival was a
developmental platform to discover and project hidden talents among young
filmmakers from across the world. Working in partnership with the German
Cultural Institute, Goethe Institut, Okhai restated the desire of the festival
to provide a platform for experimental films, animation, documentary, long
musical videos (like R. Kelly’s In the Closet or Michael Jackson’s Thriller), fiction films and mid-range movies for TV, which
can find a platform of expression in the In-Short festival.

He stated, “What we are is uniquely and positively
different”, and said the future of Nigerian moviemaking tradition did not lie
with the current crop of filmmakers, who popularised the sector, but with a new
generation of filmmakers yet to be given the opportunity to express themselves.
He added, “The pioneers have tried; they have sustained the industry but it
needs to be taken to the future.

“The future of Nollywood is for those not in the core of Nollywood at the moment. There are no opportunities for them
yet. The real sponsors won’t look at the new generation of moviemakers because
they don’t know them enough to give them a chance at financial leverage. A lot
of these talents abound; most of their works are musical videos and commercials
in international TV channels, corporate films shot for corporate bodies. What they
are doing can compete with what their peers are doing globally. These talents
range from bankers, lawyers and other professionals. What they need is the
platform being offered by In-Short International Film Festival so they can
express themselves better. They need events such as this for self-expression.

“The festival is a platform where young people with great
ideas can showcase talent. Short films are easier to make; most famous
filmmakers started from short films; they are like call cards. If you go to
You-Tube or Vimeo, you will appreciate talents in short films. At a festival
like In-Short, people will come and discover young talents in short films and
possibly give them a chance”.

Apart from showcasing talents, participants stand a chance
to compete with filmmakers from across the globe in several categories. In last
year’s first edition, Nigeria’s Folasakin Wajomo won in the Best Screen
category with Not Today (10
minutes/fiction); Best Sound went to Mohammed Musulimi’s 500 Dollars (8 minutes/fiction); Best Editing also went to
Nigeria’s Tope Ogun’s Yong Smoker
(10 minutes/fiction); Best International Short Film went to Kenya’s Ziporrah
Nyanyuri’s Zebu and the Photo Fish
(13 minutes/fiction).

Other winners were Best Actor in Nigeria’s Benedict Aromeh’s
Director in Direc-toh (30
minutes/documentary), Best Actress in Chika Anadu’s Ava in AVA (9 minutes/fiction), Best Documentary went to Bimbo
Ogunsanya’s Unique Fingers (14
minutes), Best Cinematography, Best Director and Best Film went to Imoh Umoren’s
All Sorts of Trouble (22
minutes/fiction).

She
isn’t one of the known, seasoned playwrights. But Ifechi Jane Odoe has
something urgent to tell Nigerians about the country’s inability to attain true
nationhood, its rickety superstructure, the slippery value system, the culture
of political impunity and corruption. More importantly, Odoe is seeking urgent
ways out of Nigeria’s chronic miasma so it could attain its true potential,
especially with a vibrant population that can easily be put to work to realise
dreamed of greatness. She encapsulated these thoughts in a conversation she
held with art writers in Lagos last week

Nigeria’s
inability to attain true nationhood has often been blamed on lack of patriotism
on the part of its citizenry. With a political elite manifestly corrupt and
always seeking ways to subvert the system for personal gains, and a
followership that is often gullible, docile and also corrupt or inclined to
cheering on corrupt leaders, Nigeria’s road to true nationhood seems a hard
one. What is to be done to steer the ship of state to safety?

These issues form the thrust of Odoe’s first play Edge of the Brink, a title that is suggestive of
imminent danger, a foretold coming to an end of all things, a collapse waiting
to happen. Odoe’s wish is “That we learn social lessons from Edge of the
Brink as a people,
as black people, for it to help us reason as a people, that we can do things
better. It’s a call to duty, to patriotism and nationhood; that we need a little
push to get us to our destination. When you see Nigerians abroad, they are very
confident, energetic, forward-looking people. Why should we be different back
home? Indeed, we can start doing better things after reading the book”.

Tracing the life of four young men from the rural areas to urban cities, how
they suffered in their early years through school and then moving on to the big
stage and misusing the opportunities power thrust at them and wasting the
commonwealth on self-aggrandisement, Odoe’s proposition is somewhat short of a
bloody revolution. And seeing that the country of the play’s setting may not be
so different from Nigeria, she says, “I’m not proposing that kind of bloody
revolution for Nigeria. Nature has a way of forcing things to happen one way or
the other. Nevertheless, we are now getting to a point where such proposition
can happen because we’re building up to a situation of social tension. We may
get to where society will not be able to hold any more. We may only be
postponing the evil day. In any case, revolution can also be ideological and
not necessarily a bloody one”.

Odoe’s passion for Nigeria’s social re-engineering is infectious. It is this
passion that informed her writing the book as a commentary for change.
Nigeria’s one week revolution in January, ‘Occupy Nigeria’ may still be fresh
in her mind. But Odoe is also thinking of ‘value revolution’ that should sweep
through the country, starting from the ‘self’ and then onto the family unit,
two important organs of social cohesion. She cautions, “We need to look at
ourselves and decide what we really need to do. We need to say, ‘enough is
enough to all the nonsense! Edge of the Brink is a summary of what we need in
Nigeria. It takes the grace of God to live in Nigeria in terms of water supply,
electricity, education.

“Every Nigerian you see is much stressed compared to nationals of other
countries. We’re just existing, we’re just surviving as a people; it should not
be so. The question for most people is, ‘how do I live to the next day?”

Odoe, also a mother, is not at ease with the way children have latched onto the
various social media (facebook, twitter, badoo, linkedin, etc) to define their lifestyles as against what obtained
while she was growing up. She says books, reading and the art of cookery
defined her growing up era, things parent emphasised and inculcated in their
children, wholesome pastime now lost to this generation of social media
compulsively sold to its vicious aspects, with the gruesome murder of Cynthia Osokogwu
still fresh in the memory of many Nigerians.

“We have to look at our value system as a society,” she urges. “The family
plays a very huge role in bringing children up. Parents have to hold their
children well as values from home affect their lifestyles. Edge of the Brink is a reflection of what we are so
as to be able to change our ways. And, I’m using drama as a kind of melodrama
for me to bring out what we are and to say, ‘is this really us?’. I want it
performed so we can see its effect on people.”

Also a poet, Odoe is willing to work with producers to put Edge of the Brink on stage for its full dramatic
realisation. For now Edge of the Brink can only be obtained on amazon.com or as e-book, and
she says her publisher, Authorhouse is willing to partner any local publisher
to get hard copies of the book for Nigerians.

On
the challenges of writing the play, Odoe, formerly a journalist with The
Guardian, says it
took her a year before she published the book because she wanted Edge of the
Brink to come out
fine. She also states that Edge of the Brink is a snippet of what is to come
from her as a writer.

The Kenyan writer,
Binyavanga Wainaina is the author of the memoir, One Day I Will Write About
This Place. He teaches creative writing and is the director of the Chinua
Achebe Centre for African Literature and Languages at Bard College in the U.S.
He was in Lagos recently to help teach fiction to young writers from all over
Africa in the NB/Farafina Trust Creative Writers Workshop, which ended with a
literary event at the Grand Ballroom of Eko Hotel and Suites. He took time to
speak with ANOTE AJELUOROU on some issues regarding literary engagement on the
continent. Excerpts:

What is the state of
writing in Kenya at the moment?

I think these are the most exciting times since the 1990s.
There’s a lot of new, independent publishing going on; online writing is very
vibrant, dynamic and fast-changing. A lot of writers are now writing poetry,
writing fiction, writing for TV and films and a lot of things. There are online
publishers like Kwani? and many
others going on.

How has your memoir, One
Day I Will Write About This Place been
received in Kenya?

Good! I think we sold close to 500 copies the first day at
the launch. It has actually been wonderful; I’m very, very happy. I can’t be
happier.

Tell us something about
your directorship at the Chinua Achebe Centre for African Literature and
Languages at Bard College,U.S.?

It’s wonderful. We’re in the middle of a project called Pilgrimages, where we’re taking 13 African writers to 13 cities
to write 13 books. It’s going to come in a series in a couple of years. I’ll be
writing about Accra, Ghana; so many different writers are writing about other
cities. The idea came from the African World Cup that was held in South Africa
in 2010; we just want to celebrate our cities and for Africans to be able to
say, ‘I know my place’, especially when we meet in a place like London or
Paris.

We can cay that the books are compatriots as they explain
these cities both to those who reside in them and others coming to them.

Ngugu wa Thiong’o is the
most prominent writer to have come out of Kenya. What is your relationship with
him?

Oh, lovely, lovely! Oh gosh; I’m mean, I became an Ngugu fan
very early. I can’t even begin to explain how much he has affected me. You
can’t imagine how very profound his influence on me is. And, his works tower
very high, and continues to dominate.

And you are from a
minority tribe…

No, no; I’m
Kikuyu, too, like Ngugu. But Kikuyu is not a majority either. You can’t even
plan down one agenda along clan lines in Kenya; there are different clans, of
course. The numbers are there, but not a majority.

In your book, you talked
about the violence that erupted in the last election. How much has Kenyans
learnt from that horrific experience?

On the question of the violence that happened in Kenya, we
hope that it is something that will not happen again. It shook us from our
complete complacency. It’s sad that such experience happens often in Africa.
The issue is that there’s a lot of bad politics and corruption and laxity in
the polity, especially among the political elite in Africa. The violence raised
the stakes for us. So, it was bad, but it was good for us in the long run.

So, it will make us to grow stronger and help us to learn to
accommodate one another in the future.

Most of the literary
voices on the African continent are coming from outside the continent. Writers
like you, Chimamanda Adichie and many others reside abroad. Is this a good
development?

The thing is that people make a mistake because they don’t
know where you are. I think Chimamanda resides more here in Nigeria; I spend
most of my time in Kenya; in fact, six months of the year and I travel all over
the continent. We come back a lot; I retain my Kenyan passport; I don’t have a
Green Card. I don’t have an American passport. We propagate African literature
wherever we are, in Africa and wherever.

What has happened is that many people are returning and
finding their way and are giving back. And what is more important; let’s not
talk about the writers that are out there. There is an exciting new generation
of writers that have come out of Africa in the last few years, who are
homegrown talents that are going international.

So, what’s next after One
Day I Will Write About This Place?

I don’t now; it could be anything, maybe science fiction.
I’ll surprise you. Science fiction because I like to try new things; I love
doing new things. So, look out!

IN January 2007,
Wainaina was nominated by the World Economic Forum as a "Young
Global Leader" -
an award given to people for "their potential to contribute to shaping the
future of the world." He subsequently declined the award. In his rejection
letter, he wrote: "I assume that most, like me, are tempted to go anyway
because we will get to be 'validated' and glow with the kind of
self-congratulation that can only be bestowed by very globally visible and
significant people, and we are also tempted to go and talk to spectacularly
bright and accomplished people – our 'peers'. We will achieve Global
Institutional Credibility for our work, as we have been anointed by an
institution that many countries and presidents bow down to.

“The problem here is that I am a writer. And although, like
many, I go to sleep at night fantasizing about fame, fortune and credibility,
the thing that is most valuable in my trade is to try, all the time, to keep
myself loose, independent and creative...it would be an act of great
fraudulence for me to accept the trite idea that I am 'going to significantly
impact world affairs”.

PERHAPS the most radical outcome of
the NB/Farafina Trust’s Creative Writers Workshop that came to a close last Friday
with a Farafina Literary Eevening was Kenyan writer’s proposition of a literary
community and friendship as a means of broadening the literary space. It had
arisen from a conversation one of the facilitators, Binyavanga Wainaina (author
of One day I Will Write about this Place), had with
workshop coordinator, Chimamanda Adichie. Adichie had amplified it at the
closing conversation with the three facilitators (the others being Rob Spillman
and Jeff Allen from U.S).

Wainaina had affirmed that it was
important that writers formed communities of two or more people to support each
other in the creative process. He noted that the importance of literary
friendship was to make writing breathe in any given country. He charged the
workshop participants to use the opportunity wisely, saying that the current
generation had unbelievable opportunities, which he said did not reside in oil
and gas but the need to be committed to writing fully.

Spillman also agreed, saying
writing transcended boundaries and impregnable borders and that only through
writing communities could writing and the messages embedded in writing spread
to a wider audience. Allen recounted how contact with other writers like
Adichie came about through such writing community when he previously traveled
to Kenya for a workshop.

Also, the ever-persistent question
of how to stimulate interest in reading also came up for the four accomplished
writers. Wainaina put it down to failure of many educational systems, where
emphasis was not on reading for the pleasure of fun of it but only for
examination purposes. He also blamed poor politicking for the reading woe,
saying, “Something has been stolen from us, something political and spiritual.
Somebody has stolen something from us”, and stressed the need to regain
whatever it was that has been stolen from the populace to correct the anomaly.

While agreeing with Wainaina
on the educational front, Adichie would not be so persimistic about itbut said
although some sort of reading was going on, she wasn’t sure the sort of things
being read. “I’m not persimistic”, she said. “I think that people are reading
more today than 10 years ago. Social media really good but time spent in them
should be spent reading. Like Binyavanga said, the educational system has
failed. People read but what are they reading? Literature is important; it’s
about having fun, learning, and thinking deep. Do parents read themselves to
encourage their children to read? It’s okay for all of us to bemoan lack of
reading but we must start reading.”

On what constitute the
African story, Adichie discounted such a thing as African story, saying a story
should have sufficient human elements of the good and bad, including the
dreams, hopes and aspirations of human beings fully expressed. She further noted
that the story should be less about the subject as how it is done to realise
that person as a full human being. Spillman said the story should be about the
human person, and added, “I don’t read to have preconceptions reinforced. I ask
for the stories behind the headlines”. Allen said writers were always obligated
to the truth about the story. And, such truth, Adichie added, was “important as
writing required emotional truth and honesty, ability to offend”, when
necessary.

Allen expressed the view
that Nigerians have abundant energy, drive and ambition, saying, “I really had
a fantastic time” although he had to visit the Nigerian Embassy in New York
five times to get a visa. Spillman commented on the energy he noticed, adding,
“I love the energy and the creativity everywhere, although slightly
dysfunctional. You wonder how these things work, but they do work”.

Wainaina, who has been part of the
workshop since inception, said, “Every time I come renewed. There are a few
places I’ve been where there is a battle between good and evil but the good is
winning. There’s something extremely powerful about here (Nigeria)”.

EARLIER, Farafina CEO, Muktar
Bakare said the 20 participants for fourth edition of the workshop were drawn
from Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, Cameroun, U.K. and the U.S. thus making it
the most broad-based workshop so far. He said the workshop was giving
opportunities for aspiring writers to find their own voices in their craft. He
expressed his optimism about the future of creative writing in Africa with the
quality of writers the workshop was training. He expressed gratitude to Nigeria
Breweries Plc for the support, saying the company was acting in the true sense
of culture patrons all over the world in supporting creativity.

Bakare paid glowing tributes to the four workshop
facilitators, whose individual talents he said was gradually creating global
recognition for it. He described Kenyan Wainaina as “a force of nature, a great
bridge-builder; he picks talents across Africa and introduces them to the
world”. He said Allen has continued to open doors for African writers all over
the world while Spillman “was committed to the creation of literature from
across cultures, especially his quest in always asking for new things and
always looking for opportunities from the best we have”.

For the home girl, Adichie, Bakare didn’t say much as her
dedication to the promotion of local talent has become legendary. He only
charged the workshop participants to “Please, do read, and write, too!”

On his part, Managing
Director and Chief Executive Officer of Nigerian Breweries Plc, Mr. Nicolaas
Vervelde, said, “It is always a great pleasure for me to be part of this
gathering of distinguished men and women of letters… Four years ago, Nigerian
Breweries began a partnership with Farafina Trust to sponsor the Creative
Writers Workshop. It is a partnership founded on our desire to encourage the
development of literary writing skills in Nigeria as part of our strategic
corporate initiatives towards talent development and youth empowerment.
Nigerian Breweries remains at the forefront of providing this kind of enduring
platforms to nurture Nigeria’s abundant talents”.

Vervelde also stated that the underlying vision for the
workshop and other CSR activities of the Nigeria Breweries Plc was “to harness
these talents. This country has amazing talents; it’s about the development of
these energetic, rough diamonds that we want to do. Adichie is the spiritual
leader of the workshop, and we cannot thank her enough”.

He expressed the hope that the workshop experience would
help the participants to improve their talents and develop as writers, adding,
“We hope that in a few years we will have the class of Ben Okri, Wole Soyinka
and other great Nigerian writers”.

Adichie, too, expressed her appreciation for the sponsorship
from Nigeria Breweries Plc, especially to its CEO, Vervelde, whom she described
as “having a warm humility about him and a genuine interest in developing
talents in Nigeria”. She also saluted his brother, Key Adichie, who manages the
NB/Farafina Trust, organisers of the creative writing workshop, saying, “My
brother with whom I grew up reading books” and her parents, for their faith in
her early in life, when they allowed her to switch from medicine to literature.

On the workshop, Adichie said, “We had a wonderful group
this year; I just love to teach writing”. While reading the citation of each of
the 20 participants present, Adichie was full of warm words for them, spelling
out their individual strengths as exposed in their workshop pieces and their
respective qualities and traits while at the workshop.

On their experiences coming to Nigeria to teach creative
writing, Spillman said, “When you’re in the U.S., you have an impression of
Nigeria, but it has been impressive coming here. My home is really in stories
in literature. From my parentage, I’m a normad. I couldn’t happier with the
students because they did what was expected of them”.

Allen was pleased to be in Nigeria for the second time,
adding, “It’s been an amazing experience. I enjoyed working with all the
writers; very fantastic”. He read from a new book he is working on due out next
year.

Three participant writers stood out from the crowd among the
21 writers. While two of them – Richard Alli (author of A City of Memories) and
Yetunde Omotosho (South Africa-based author of Bom Boy and
daughter of renowned writer, scholar and critic, Prof. Kole Omotosho) are
published authors, the other is Kano-based journalist with Abdulaziz Ahmed
Abdulaziz, with Blueprint newspaper.

To spice up the evening was
songstress, Onyaka Onwenu, who was praised to the high heavens by the duo of
Bakare and Adichie. She pelted the literary audience with melodies from her
evergreen repertoire. And they danced and sang along with her inside the Grand
Ballroom of Eko Hotel and Suites, Lagos.